micah7:9:
2Co 5:19 To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.

I get the impression, by some teaching, that God is/was angry with His creation. Some teach that Jesus is man's lawyer pleading for us as an advocate. I have thoughts, thank you.Peace and Love Through Jesus

Colleen:
I would like to hear your thoughts on this. I have really been struggling with this.

Ross:
If I make something, how can I get angry with what I made because it is not doing what it is made for? That is effectively saying I do not know how to use what I just made.On top of that the idea of being wrongly used by someone who claims to know what he is doing, when he has supposedly read all the manuls, yet has not spoken to the real maker. That seems to be the common case with many preachers.

I like the quote from Rom;9;22,23 " And if God, wishing to show His anger and MAKE KNOWN His power, bare in much patience with vessels of anger fitted for destruction, IN ORDER THAT He might MAKE KNOWN the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy which He prepared beforehand for glory,whom He also called,even US, not only from among the Jews but also from among the nations,"

Rom 11;32-36 " For God has shut up ALL together in a refusal to yield, IN ORDER THAT He may bestow mercy upon ALL.Oh the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God!How unsearchable His judgements!And untraceable His ways!For who has come to know the mind of the Lord?Or who has become His counsellor?Or who has given to Him first and it shall be recompensed to him again?Because of Himand through Himand to Him are ALL things;to Him be the glory to the ages. Amen!"

IMO our Father is teaching us. He is training us in the difference between good and evil. Practical lessons are the best way to learn, and even then we only learn AFTER the experience. So I see a living display of incredible patience being shown by our Father since He planned all this before the world began. If we went by man's interpretation of justice many people should be locked up or electrified for their sins.

ded2daworld:
A guy asked me a question once where I was working as a bouncer. He sneeringly said, "If god is so great and powerful, why doesn't he just remove all the evil people from the earth."I answered, "because if God did that, there wouldn't be a single person left on the planet."

Ross is right also in that we learn best by first hand experience. I've been told that the word disciple means "one who does" not one who thinks like the one he is following. Didn't Jesus say we are truly his disciples if we love one another?One of my favorite non-biblical short quotes is, "The Learning is in the Doing."

anti_nietzsche:
IMO,Scripture often tells us about God in pictures and images and little stories. But in fact God is very different from us men and from how we project our own beings into what we think of God. So, basically, God has no long grey beard, He probably doesn't sit on a literal throne in a castle and He isn't constantly feeling anger about the world, even when people do a lot of evil there. I mean, God is not an old man on a throne shaking his fist against the Earth.

But God is definetly a person and as far as we are persons we resemble God, that's what the book of Genesis implies by saying God made us in His image.

And a person can disagree with what happens, He can have values and He can speak about that to us, through prophets, through the bible, through reason and natural revelation.

So what all of this means is that this creation, our world anyway, is not in order. There is evil happening and there is a lack of knowing God in the way He wants to be known, as love incarnate (Apostle John found this). What is important is to see how God is not angry with us as small little humans, He is angry with sin. He looks down from Heaven and sees everything that happens here. Suppose you would live in some appartment with TV's and monitors everywhere and they would always show perverted crimes - it's like God lives in such an appartment. He knows everything. But, on the other hand, there is still a lot of good happening on the world, and God sees that too.

So God is not really angry with his creation, only with the existence of evil on this world, in various ways. And it is His goal to spread His faith and love so people could escape evil and overcome it with good. And eventually Jesus Christ will come back and change absolutely everything. Opinions vary on what exactly will happen, but I think Jesus' Return will refuel the stars, end diseases, allow men to live far far longer than before and the devil will be taken away so this dark influence won't be there anymore either.

Until then, however, mankind's life must be challenged with natural evils and disasters. This doesn't mean God hates us or that He is even angry with us, it means that our ambitions need to be checked lest we think we are gods and pervert everything in an even worse way than things are perverted now. And with perversion I mean, the poor are neglected, children are abused, the elderly are mistreated, those who suffer find no kindness, and so on. It is such things God can be said to be angry with.

But please don't try to imagine God as angry. God is not an angry God. It's just the biblical way of speaking about it. I mean, what would the ancients have thought if a prophet came to them and said, "Dear People of the United Israel, it is my conviction that not so much first class felonies should happen in this fine country and that is why I will give you a precautionary punishment according to article X in our constitution". No, the prophet just said, God is angry with you.

Please get this right, our Lord is a pleasure to be with and His presence with us when He comes to us is friendly, majestic and kind, it often reminds me to the smell of incense in church.